


Relapse

by severinne



Series: The Wind and Its Satellite [5]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Communication Failure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-23 00:27:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/616048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/severinne/pseuds/severinne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pike wants to comfort McCoy after a bad day, even if offering comfort is a relatively new concept for them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

  * For [norfolkdumpling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/norfolkdumpling/gifts).



> Written at the special request of the lovely Norfolkdumpling. It's not exactly a planned part of the series but it fits.

‘Well,’ McCoy murmured, ‘this sure does take me back.’

Pike acknowledged the shared joke with a mild smirk but concern still weighed heavy in his eyes as he slid onto the neighbouring barstool. ‘Phil called earlier,’ he explained as he narrowed an eye around the dark and not particularly clean bar, observing with just enough disapproval to make McCoy cringe deeper into himself.

‘So you’ve heard all the ugly details.’ He swallowed a bracing mouthful of bourbon. ‘Great.’

‘I heard Dr. Dejeure was less than receptive to your suggestions, and that you responded in kind.’

‘I told him he was a pompous fool and a threat to his patients,’ he snarled angrily. ‘And that he had no business working in a teaching hospital.’

‘Not everyone would disagree with you,’ Pike said evenly. McCoy glanced around sharply, stunned to find more sympathy than irony dancing at the corner of his mouth.

‘I was dismissed from class like a naughty schoolboy,’ he added, temper rising as Pike’s smile widened. ‘Damn it, shouldn’t you be giving me a scolding along with the rest of them, _Captain_?’

‘Do you see a uniform here?’ 

McCoy finally turned far enough to look past his bourbon and Pike’s eyes and take in the rest of his body. At first glance, Pike’s black civilian clothes had been indistinguishable from his command greys but the finer trousers and fitted jacket were plenty easy on the eye as well. With a last appreciative look, McCoy grunted his agreement and turned back to his drink.

‘I didn’t come here to scold,’ Pike sighed. His hand came to rest on the bar alongside McCoy’s, tracing gently over his tensed knuckles. ‘I wish I’d given you more reason to know that.’

He winced at the regret in Pike’s voice. ‘I do know that,’ he muttered guiltily. ‘You should probably just ignore anything coming out of my damn fool mouth until tomorrow morning.’ He drained his bourbon and flagged after the bartender, but Pike grabbed his hand and pressed it back down to the bar. ‘What’re you doing?’ he scowled, ignoring the instinctive spark of arousal deep in his belly at the uncompromising pressure of Pike’s fingers. 

‘Taking you home.’ With a parting squeeze, Pike released his hand and stood up from his stool. ‘Let’s go.’

Despite his stubborn inclination to ignore Pike and order another drink, McCoy grabbed his coat and stalked moodily after him, though he maintained a hard silence in Pike’s shuttlecar in futile hope of transmitting his annoyance with this turn of events. If he had thought sex was going to improve his day, he would have called Pike immediately, as he had often done at times worse than this; really, it was the small-minded bullshit of it all that made him retreat to a bar rather than Pike’s bed in the first place. He wasn’t so damned needy that he needed to drag Pike into every pathetic episode of his life.

All the same, he followed without protest from car to lift to Pike’s apartment, where he dropped into the wide sofa with a resigned groan. Some of the tension was already bleeding out of his muscles as his body settled into the familiar cushions; he tipped his head back and closed his eyes, enjoying the fleeting calm before Pike’s fingers combed lightly through his hair. McCoy cracked a wary eye open, frowning at the sparkling glass of amber liquid floating above him.

‘Weren’t you trying to drag me away from this?’ he asked, even as he plucked the glass from Pike’s fingers before it could be pulled out of reach.

‘I was dragging you away from shitty bars, not your bourbon.’ Pike circled around the sofa and sat alongside him with a snifter of what was likely his preferred brandy. ‘Not to mention the whole drinking-by-yourself thing.’

‘Jim’s on field training,’ he said, taking a sip from his bourbon. ‘You know that.’

‘Yes.’ Pike stared down into his brandy, swirling it pensively rather than taking a sip. ‘And where did you think I was?’

That uneasy guilt from the bar crawled through his chest again, clenching unpleasantly around his lungs. ‘Busy?’ he tried. He could already feel the ground dropping out from beneath him.

‘I’m never too busy to make time for you,’ Pike protested. As soon as he said it, though, he ducked his chin down with a wry shake of his head. ‘Well, let’s put it this way,’ he said. ‘If I were too busy, it would likely be something big enough to hit the entire Fleet and neither of us would have time for this anyway.’

McCoy snorted, raised his glass in a mocking toast before taking another sip.

‘But today,’ Pike continued, finally tasting his brandy before setting it aside, ‘not much out of the ordinary happened, until Phil called to fill me in on your skirmish with Dejeure. So I had plenty of time to check your quarters and three other bars before I found you.’ Far from sounding annoyed at the inconvenience, Pike shifted subtly closer as he spoke and settled sideways on the sofa, resting an arm on its back and sliding his fingers through McCoy’s hair. ‘I’m glad I did,’ he added softly. ‘I didn’t think an ass like Dejeure could get under your skin this bad.’

‘He does, though,’ McCoy admitted, eyes falling closed as his head fell heavily back into Pike’s touch. ‘Not just today, and not just him…’ Fingertips kneaded at the ache beneath his scalp, drawing a low hum from his throat. ‘Damn it, I can’t pretend another doctor isn’t full of shit just because I’m wearing a stupid red uniform and he ain’t.’

‘No one’s saying you should.’ A sigh tickled McCoy’s neck as Pike leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to his temple. ‘And the uniform looks great on you,’ he added in a fond murmur that plucked a reluctant thread of warmth in McCoy’s chest.

‘Doesn’t mean it fits right,’ he grumbled. ‘I don’t know what made you think my big mouth belonged in Starfleet in the first place.’

‘Besides my own selfish motivation?’ But Pike must have seen some of the genuine doubt in his face; his other hand pulled gently at McCoy’s shoulder, drew him into a loose embrace. ‘They’re lucky to have you,’ he insisted firmly, ‘almost as lucky as I am. Don’t you doubt that for a second.’

On a good day, McCoy might have believed him, or faked it well enough with a blistering remark. Today, however, he leaned into Pike’s arms and rested his head on a firm shoulder, too worn down to resist the hypnotic stroke of Pike’s fingers through his hair. He anchored his hands around his crystal tumbler, careful not to spill his bourbon as the rest of his body lapsed into something nearing relaxation, though there was anxiety enough clinging to his bones for Pike to squeeze him tellingly tighter.

‘I know this can’t be easy for you,’ he said. ‘Most of our cadets don’t know any other way of life, but you, with your experience… we should’ve talked about it a lot sooner than this.’

‘Didn’t think you were much interested in talking.’ The words slipped too easily off McCoy’s tongue, making him flinch in their wake. No surprise that his damned mouth had relaxed far ahead of the rest of him.

‘Is that why you didn’t come to me?’ Pike drew back slightly, concern and amusement caught up in a raised eyebrow. ‘Think I can’t resist that gorgeous body of yours long enough to have a conversation?’

McCoy scowled as he felt an unhelpful blush crawling up his neck. ‘I didn’t say that,’ he protested.

‘You didn’t have to.’ Pike leaned back into the corner of the sofa, drawing McCoy with him until they were comfortably nested together. ‘And I suppose you’d be right more often than not,’ he admitted grudgingly. ‘But I’d never want you to feel you couldn’t talk to me without…’ He exhaled heavily, his chest deflating beneath McCoy’s back. ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t been very–’

‘It hasn’t all been down to you,’ McCoy pointed out bluntly. The last thing he wanted was to drag Pike down to his miserable level with needless guilt. He glared into his bourbon, and reached to set it aside on the coffee table; Pike smoothly intercepted his glass and carried it the rest of the way there before tangling their hands together within the fold of their bodies. ‘I haven’t been setting much of a standard for small talk myself, in case you haven’t noticed.’

‘How about this, then.’ Pike brushed a kiss over the back of his neck, nuzzled up towards his ear. ‘Stay as long as you like. I’ll have dinner delivered and we can talk, or just watch the news feed, whatever you need to unwind. And I promise not to rip your clothes off in the process.’

McCoy craned his head back, a skeptical eyebrow firmly raised. The last had been spoken with a hint of a laugh but Pike’s smile was entirely sincere. ‘You’ve got to be joking.’

‘Not at all.’ He took advantage of McCoy’s upturned head to plant another kiss to his furrowed brow. ‘You don’t think I know how to be a proper gentleman?’ 

‘It’s not just that.’ The heat of Pike’s body curled around him and the enticing whisper of breath against his ear were stirring less than virtuous impulses that made Pike’s plan sound painfully shortsighted. He shifted restlessly in Pike’s embrace, trying and failing to ease the tightness of his jeans over the first stirrings of his groin.

Unsurprisingly, Pike noticed. ‘I see,’ he murmured, trailing a hand down McCoy’s torso and stopping just shy of his belt. ‘Would you prefer to take this to the bedroom after all?’

The scolding note in Pike’s voice was clearly meant to be teasing but McCoy still cringed shamefully. ‘Just ignore it,’ he muttered. ‘I’m good staying right here.’

‘Whatever you want, beautiful.’ McCoy flexed his hips with a faint and ragged moan as that hand slid further down and closed over the bulge in his jeans. ‘I’m sure I can see to this without taking your clothes off anyway,’ Pike hushed against his ear, a low whisper that burned straight through his body and made his cock twitch hopefully into Pike’s hand.

‘What happened to being a gentleman?’ he asked, though there was little conviction in the question. One of his legs was already bending and spreading wider to accommodate Pike’s hand.

‘Who says I’m not?’ A scattering of soft kisses awakened the flesh of his bared throat as Pike nuzzled his way down to his shoulder. ‘I’m not going any further than this,’ he insisted, though the intimate caress of his hands over McCoy’s fully clothed body was already verging on indecency. ‘So if it happens to be enough to make you come in your pants like a horny teenager…’

McCoy bit back a groan. ‘If you’re gonna keep talking like that…’

‘I did say we should talk more, didn’t I?’ Pike’s lips dragged back up his throat to his ear, breathing hotly over his flushed skin. 

‘Yeah…’ Eyes falling shut, McCoy reached back to anchor his fingers at the nape of Pike’s neck, laying his body open to the slow, deliberate teasing of his hands. ‘Yeah, you did…’

A deep hum vibrated through McCoy’s ear, chased by a tongue lapping far too delicately to belong to the voice that began to pour thick over him, lacing imaginative obscenities with heartfelt praise that made him blush far more than any of the filth driving his arousal along with fingers playing his stomach, his thighs, further up between his legs…

As he shook apart at his tattered seams, face buried in the heat of Pike’s neck as strong arms held him through the aftershocks, McCoy couldn’t find it in himself to regret a lack of deeper conversation; this was more than enough.


End file.
